Its rage, encapsulated in its moth-eaten protagonist, Gordon Comstock, is bound up not only with Orwell’s increasingly critical view of capitalism but also with his sense that civilization itself might be on the way out.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) may be Orwell’s angriest novel. Note: this discussion assumes you’ve read the book. Keep the Aspidistra Flying appears at pp.
John Carey (London: Everyman’s Library, 2011). Civilization, Death, and Money in Keep the Aspidistra FlyingĮdition used: George Orwell, Burmese Days, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Coming Up for Air, introd. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.11. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Offering a powerful portrayal of the emotional toll of precarity and the desire to break with capitalism, Keep the Aspidistra Flying is a significant work of mid-century British fiction but it also speaks to our own time. Completed while Orwell travelled north to work on The Road to Wigan Pier, this novel is a key transitional text in his career. The novel contains the most sustained reflections on the role of the author and the artistic imagination anywhere in Orwell's fiction, as the book's protagonist struggles (and ultimately fails) to reconcile his romantic-aestheticist sensibilities with the pressures of the literary marketplace and with social expectations. In his race to the bottom, only Rosemary, his long-suffering girlfriend, challenges Gordon's self-destructive course. Good and evil have no meaning any longer except failure and success." Disgusted by society's materialism, Gordon Comstock leaves his job in advertising to pursue an ill-fated career as a poet.
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